Saturday, May 30, 2009

Foreclosure Sales for LA and Ventura County - May 2009

Here are the Trustee Sales for May 2009. For Los Angeles County sales increased 25% MoM. For Ventura County sales increased 18% MoM. Third Party sales were especially active. I think this was because supply is so low on the MLS that investors are grabbing more marginal deals in the belief they can push prices. If trustee sales keep increasing this won't be a viable strategy over the longer term but investors are usually so quick that they can get ahead of the market. I've widely heard that the June/July period was a period in which new supply was going to hit the market, if true we should see it in the weekly inventory reports I do. I will also see if Mondays auctions (because it is a new month) bring in higher than normal sales to see if the lenders are starting to be more aggressive in foreclosing.

Thanks for the compliment. I will post some expanded data in another post later today but the short answer is July 2008 (the last month before the full foreclosure moratorium went in effect) was the peak.

Third party sales are also increasing because the opening bids are so low. If all homeowners knew the opening bids for houses on their street, there would be a crushing wave of ruthless defaults. I've already seen it personally when I have told people the opening bid for a house on their street. "That's it... I'm walking away..." These are people who put $120K down. Paid $577K total in 2005, opening bid was $285K.

I haven't seen a huge rush of massively discounted (relative to current market value) properties.. Some lenders are discounting, others aren't. I think the 2 differences this month were there were more trustee sales and very little inventory in the affordable ranges on the market.. if you are quick (and investors are) you can buy, do CFK and get on market in a very low inventory enviroment.